Jim Mora: ‘Would be awful if Brett Hundley gets black QB stereotype from NFL’
When Jim Mora addressed the media at Pac-12 Media Days on Thursday he spent much of it speaking about his star quarterback, Brett Hundley, who bypassed the NFL to return to the UCLA Bruins for his redshirt junior season.
Mora gushed when he spoke of Hundley who passed for 3,071 yards and 24 touchdowns while also rushing for 748 yards and 11 more scores last season.
“I can tell you unequivocally that Brett Hundley is a first-round draft pick. The guy’s a future star in the NFL.”
Hundley was a potential first round draft pick before he decided to return to UCLA to continue to improve as a quarterback and build upon the success Mora and he have built with the Bruins.
More from College Football
- Jim Harbaugh facing 4-game suspension over NCAA violations
- College football neutral site games in 2023: Full list
- College GameDay announces surprise Week 1 destination
- College football analyst warns Oklahoma that Texas is doing better prep for SEC
- College Football Playoff national championship game locations for 2024, 2025 and beyond
His time in the NFL will come after this season or maybe even next year, but when Hundley does enter the NFL Draft, he hopes he will avoid the “black quarterback stereotype” he witnessed first hand when he was the coach of Michael Vick with the Atlanta Falcons.
"“People have a tendency at times to see an African-American quarterback and say oh, he’s a runner. I hate that stereotype and I always have,” said Mora. “I coached Michael Vick and my belief that we stereotype those guys started with him. I don’t want that to happen with Brett, and I’m going to make sure that it doesn’t, because it shouldn’t.”"
The tendency to call a quarterback who can make plays with his feet a “running quarterback” would not apply to Hundley who is perfectly capable of doing both, much like Cam Newton, Colin Kaepernick or Russell Wilson who have experienced success making plays with their feet as well as their arm in the NFL.
Who wouldn’t want a quarterback who could do both?